309
votes

Can anyone tell me how to make an EditText not editable via XML? I tried setting android:editable to false, but

  1. it is deprecated; and
  2. it didn't work.
29
If not editable, why would you need the EditText? Wont using an ordinary TextView be enough? And is setEditable() function deprecated too?kiki
For me this makes sense in order to enable standard copy paste for the contents. With a TextView it's not possible (at least not default behaviour)User
Correction: It's a bad idea. On certain circunstances the view becomes editable, or the copy paste options doesn't show anymore. Will look for other approach.User
In my case, I want to temporarily disable an EditText while a set of operations performs, and then reenable it when the operation finishes.Joe Plante
This question is about a legitimate concern. To preserve the EditText style and permit scrolling, use UI.setReadOnly(myEditText, true) from this library. There are a few properties that have to be set, which you can check out in the source code.caw

29 Answers

410
votes

Use this simple code:

textView.setKeyListener(null);

It works.

Edit : To add KeyListener later, do following

1 : set key listener to tag of textView

textView.setTag(textView.getKeyListener());
textView.setKeyListener(null);

2 : get key listener from tag and set it back to textView

textView.setKeyListener((KeyListener) textView.getTag());
412
votes

Add this to your EditText xml file:

<EditText ...
        android:clickable="false" 
        android:cursorVisible="false" 
        android:focusable="false" 
        android:focusableInTouchMode="false">
</EditText>

It will do the same effect as android:editable="false". Worked for me, hope it'll work for you too.

54
votes

Let your Edittext be

EditText editText;

editText.setKeyListener(null);

will work but it just not listening to keys.

User can see a cursor on the edittext.

You can try editText.setEnabled(false);

That means user cannot see the cursor. To simply say it will became TextView.

33
votes

As mentioned in other answers, you can do a setEnabled(false) but since you are asking how to set it via XML, here is how to do it.

Add the following attribute to your EditText:

android:enabled="false"
25
votes

disable from XML (one line):

 android:focusable="false"

re-enable from Java, if need be (also one line):

editText.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
19
votes

They made "editable" deprecated but didn't provide a working corresponding one in inputType.

By the way, does inputType="none" has any effect? Using it or not does not make any difference as far as I see.

For example, the default editText is said to be single line. But you have to select an inputType for it to be single line. And if you select "none", it is still multiline.

14
votes

This combination worked for me:

<EditText ... >
    android:longClickable="false"
    android:cursorVisible="false"
    android:focusableInTouchMode="false"
</EditText>
13
votes

As you mentioned android:editable is deprecated. android:inputType="none" should be used instead but it does not work due to a bug (https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2854)

But you can achieve the same thing by using focusable.

Via XML:

<EditText ...
        android:focusable="false" 
</EditText>

From code:

((EditText) findViewById(R.id.LoginNameEditText)).setFocusable(false);
13
votes

if you want to click it, but not want to edit it, try:

        android:focusable="false"
8
votes

Just use android:enabled="false". This will also give an appearance to the EditText which will make it look not editable.

7
votes
<EditText
    android:id="@+id/txtDate"
    android:layout_width="140dp"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
    android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="2dp"
    android:clickable="false"
    android:cursorVisible="false"
    android:gravity="center" />

and use following :

txtDate.setKeyListener(null);
7
votes

If you want to do it in java code just use this line to disable it:

editText.setEnabled(false);

And this to enable it:

editText.setEnabled(true);
5
votes

I tried to do:

textView.setInputType( InputType.TYPE_NULL );

which should work, but for me it did not.

I finished with this code:

textView.setKeyListener(new NumberKeyListener() {
    public int getInputType() {
        return InputType.TYPE_NULL;
    }

    protected char[] getAcceptedChars() {
        return new char[] {};
    }
});

which works perfectly.

4
votes

When I want an activity to not focus on the EditText and also not show keyboard when clicked, this is what worked for me.

Adding attributes to the main layout

android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants"
android:focusableInTouchMode="true"

and then the EditText field

android:focusable="false"
android:focusableInTouchMode="false"

Here is an example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/activity_home"
    android:background="@drawable/bg_landing"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingBottom="0dp"
    android:paddingLeft="0dp"
    android:paddingRight="0dp"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants"
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
    tools:context="com.woppi.woppi.samplelapp.HomeActivity">

    <EditText
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="@null"
        android:inputType="textPersonName"
        android:ems="10"
        android:id="@+id/fromEditText"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:hint="@string/placeholder_choose_language"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        android:textColorHint="@android:color/darker_gray"
        android:focusable="false"
        android:focusableInTouchMode="false"
        android:onClick="onSelectFromLanguage" />

</RelativeLayout>
4
votes
android:focusable="false"

android:clickable="false"

android:longClickable="false"

The "longClickable" attribute disables the long press actions that cause the "Paste" and or "Select All" options to show up as a tooltip.

3
votes

In addition to @mahe madi you can try this as well

editText.setEnabled(false);
editor.setTextColor(Color.BLACK);

This method will hide cursor, lose focus and more importantly set text color to black behaving like TextView.

And to revert Back to editText simply do this to gain all the properties of EditText.

editText.setEnabled(true);

Hope it Helps :)

3
votes

You could use android:editable="false" but I would really advise you to use setEnabled(false) as it provides a visual clue to the user that the control cannot be edited. The same visual cue is used by all disabled widgets and consistency is good.

3
votes

Try this :

android:inputType="none"
3
votes

This way did the job for me, i can selec and copy to clipboard, but i can't modify or paste.

android:enable="true"
android:textIsSelectable="true"
android:inputType="none"
2
votes

I've tried the following:

codeEditText.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_NULL);

this.codeEditText.setOnFocusChangeListener(new OnFocusChangeListener() {

  @Override
  public void onFocusChange(View v, boolean hasFocus) {

    if (hasFocus) {

      pickCode();

    }

  }

});
this.codeEditText.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

  @Override
  public void onClick(View v) {

    pickCode();

  }

});

but the problem was that if the edit text is the first in the form then it gets the focus and the pickCode() code which launches a new activity is called straight away. So I modified the code as follows and it seems to work quite well (except I cannot set the focus on the text edit but I don't need to):

itemCodeEditText.setFocusable(false);

this.itemCodeEditText.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

  @Override
  public void onClick(View v) {

    pickItem();

  }

});

Best Regards,

Comments welcome,

John Goche

2
votes

I use EditText.setFocusable(false) and set true again if I want to edit.

1
votes

android:editable is deprecated so use inputType instead.

   <EditText
        android:id="@+id/editText_x"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:layout_weight="70"
        android:inputType="none"
        android:hint="@string/enter_x" />
1
votes

I have faced same problem but after observation I found that android:editable="false" is only working when inputtype (android:inputType="ANY_VALUE") is not given in the Edittext.

Remove inputType from EditText and use editable = false, its working fine.

1
votes

Please try this!, it may help some people

<EditText  
android:enabled="false"
android:textColor="#000000"/>
0
votes

I resolve this with a dialog.

    AlertDialog dialog;
    EditText _editID;
    TextView _txtID;

 @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_principal);
        _txtID = (TextView) findViewById(R.id._txtID);
        dialog = new AlertDialog.Builder(this).create();
        _editID = new EditText(this);
        _editID.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_NUMBER_FLAG_SIGNED);
        dialog.setTitle("Numero do Registro:");
        dialog.setView(_editID);
        dialog.setButton(DialogInterface.BUTTON_POSITIVE, "IR", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                _txtID.setText(_editID.getText());
                toId(Integer.parseInt((_editID.getText().toString())));
            }
        });
        dialog.setButton(DialogInterface.BUTTON_NEGATIVE, "CANCELAR", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                dialog.dismiss();
            }
        });

        _txtID.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                _txtID.setText("_editID.getText()");
                //_editID.setText("");
                dialog.show();

            }
        });
0
votes

Short answer: I used android:focusable="false" and it worked. Click listening is also working now.

0
votes

Kotlin extension option:

fun AppCompatAutoCompleteTextView.setEditable(editable: Boolean) {
    if (!editable) {
        this.tag = this.keyListener
        this.keyListener = null
    } else {
        if(this.tag is KeyListener) {
            [email protected] = [email protected] as KeyListener
        }
    }
}
-1
votes

Try

.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_NULL);
-10
votes

Try this code. It's working in my project, so it will work in your project.

android:editable="false"